The company might lose ______ client and it would be her fault.

The company might lose ______ client and it would be her fault.

• A. their
• B. his
• C. her
• D. our

Answer: (A)

Think about ownership and how we refer to something belonging to a company. When the subject is a company, English often uses a gender-neutral possessive. Here the company owns a client, so the natural choice is their, which sounds smooth and neutral: The company might lose their client and it would be her fault. Using its would be technically fine in strict grammar, but many speakers prefer their for organizations to keep the tone natural. The other options don’t fit: his would imply a male owner, her would attribute ownership to a person rather than the company, and our would suggest the speaker is included with the company.

Think about ownership and how we refer to something belonging to a company. When the subject is a company, English often uses a gender-neutral possessive. Here the company owns a client, so the natural choice is their, which sounds smooth and neutral: The company might lose their client and it would be her fault. Using its would be technically fine in strict grammar, but many speakers prefer their for organizations to keep the tone natural. The other options don’t fit: his would imply a male owner, her would attribute ownership to a person rather than the company, and our would suggest the speaker is included with the company.